TD I stick by what I said at the start of my first post as I think in part it does go to the intended meaning. Grant wasn't Meade, I have to believe he would have fought Gettysburg differently from Meade and that would have affected the outcome of the battle, and possibly even the outcome of the war. Johnston wasn't Lee, had he been left in charge of the Army of Northern Virginia would McClellan have eventually pulled back from the Penisula as he did with Lee or would he have possibly taken Richmond by that fall? I have to believe that you could take just about any general who was not involved in a particular battle and place them in that battle with the results being they would have an affect on the outcome of the battle. So the question I ask is not if they'd affect the outcome but how much of an effect their presence would cause.

Ewell wasn't Jackson, Hill wasn't Jackson. After Jackson's death we know Lee weakened the Second Corps by splitting it in two and giving half to Ewell and half to Hill as the Third Corps. And prior to this split Hill had been in charge of the entire corps following Chancellorsville. Had either Ewell or Hill commanded almost exactly like Jackson then I think we could better predict how Jackson would have affected the war and future battles had he lived. But they weren't him so we can't use them as a gauge in my opinion. BUT I believe we can readily assume that had Jackson survived Lee would not have created the Third out of a portion of the Second and that Ewell and Hill would have most likely remained division commanders at Gettysburg (though Ewell might not have been at Gettysburg and might have been commanding reserves in defense of Richmond during the battle). DH Hill might not have been detatched for recruiting duty and then to command reserves in defense of Richmond as his brother-in-law might have managed to keep him in his command. And if this were so then Pettigrew might have returned to DH Hill's Division instead of being made a part of Heth's. So we can't tell where Pettigrew's Brigade would have been June 30th.

But let's assume things leading into Gettysburg still largely played out the way they had in reality and we swap Hill and Henry Heth for Jackson and DH Hill. Pettigrew is supposed to have seen Buford's First Cavalry Division near Gettysburg and did not engage. But on returning to Cashtown he informed Hill and Heth of their pesence in Gettysburg, which both dismissed. Had he told Jackson and DH Hill then I'd think Jackson would have sent a small force to determine if Pettigrew was right on June 30th and informed Lee of the possibility that Federal cavalry was in Gettysburg. He might then have waited for Longstreet's Corps to come up so Lee could launch an attack enforce as was what Lee ordered. This would then have given Lee the choice of battlefield and today we might be talking about the Battle of Cashtown instead of Gettysburg.

On his viewing himself as an instrument of God you're right that we have no way of knowing how his injuries would have affected his thinking on this. For all we'll ever know you're right that he saw his injuries as a test from God. But he might have also viewed them as punishment for not being aggressive enough or for being too aggressive. Or he might have viewed it as a warning not to but himself in such a situation again. We can only speculate on how he would have taken it